Crow's Ire

"Are you finished?"

Even after Marcus spoke these words, only the three distinguished individuals from earlier processed them. The two women were now eyeing Marcus more scrutinously and the stranger noticed this, which made his smirk turn into a barely concealed grin.

One of the women spoke to the other in a whispered tone as to not draw the attention of the surrounding crowd.

"I don't think he's like the others Skyler," Mia spoke in a surprisingly worried tone.

To this, Skyler didn't comment on Mia's statement and only continued scanning the omen in front of her.

The stranger was the only one to hear the two women's conversation, even though he stood at least forty meters away from them. He didn't care what they said though, as he'd already assumed Marcus was... special.

By this point, the guards, who'd been stunned earlier, finally registered what Marcus had said. The skinnier looking man's face turned red from a mix of embarrassment and anger, and the other guard only frowned at the turn of events.

The over-weight guard was older and more experienced than the skinner guard judging by the long beard and scrutinizing gaze he was also giving the omen. He was being wary of the blindfolded anomaly in front of him and chose not to make any rash decisions; however, the skinnier and younger looking guard wasn't as tactful.

"I bet you think your something just cuz' you thought you could dodge that huh?"

Marcus turned to look at the man as if he had grown a second head.

"Not really," Marcus spoke after letting out a sigh. "Look can you just-"

"Quiet you half-breed!"

To this, Marcus immediately shut his mouth, not because he felt compelled to follow this guard's order but to not escalate things further.

Whilst the guard was shouting curses and profanities at Marcus, the boy started to observe his surroundings. The crowd around him had grown a bit and they were now staring at him as if he were some strange creature at the zoo.

He also noticed two women's fierce gazes trained on him for some reason. One seemed to be curious and the other seemed as if she was ready to pounce.

Marcus turned to also look in the direction of the stranger. The man still hadn't uttered a word to save Marcus from his predicament and Marcus found this strange.

Throughout his travels, Marcus hadn't spoken much to others for obvious reasons, but Nekros had taught him how to observe others and read basic human gestures and expressions. Although he wasn't a master at it, Marcus was able to pick up on some things here and there. This was all to say that Marcus couldn't understand or read the stranger's actions or expressions.

At first he'd acted as though he was curious about Marcus when he saw his scythe and told Marcus to follow him into town. Yet now that Marcus had followed, he acted as if he didn't know him at all.

'Is it because of the crowd around us,' Marcus thought while observing the crowd.

He immediately dismissed this idea though.

'No that doesn't make sense. If he cared about what they thought then he wouldn't have skipped past them so casually.'

'Could it be those two women from earlier?'

'... But they weren't originally here when I'd observed the crowd before so why is he...'

While Marcus was continuing to try and deduce the stranger's motives, the young guard from earlier hadn't stopped yelling at Marcus the whole time.

Marcus planned to ignore the man because he was becoming an eyesore, but the next words the man spoke changed Marcus's outlook on him entirely.

"-some manners. Honestly though, I guess I should expect this coming from the son of a bitch.

"Father's probably a no good bastard too if this is all the respect you have for authority.

"If this was all you were going to amount to then your mother shoulda swal-"

"Be quiet."

Those were the only words Marcus spoke, but they seemed to carry enough power and forcefulness in them to immediately cause the guard to shut his mouth. The other guard besides him hadn't said anything the entire time either, even as his colleague stooped low enough to insult the omen's parents.

He didn't care about Marcus's feelings of course, but he thought the guard was making a fool of himself so he planned on stopping him eventually. However, before he got the chance, Marcus took the initiative. This caused the fat guardsman to become even more wary of the little monster in front of him.

He wasn't the only one to have reacted more seriously either, the entire crowd who'd been snickering and whispering while Marcus was getting insulted turned quiet. Even the three distinguished people from earlier had more guarded expressions on their faces after hearing Marcus's words.

"Oi! What you say to me?"

The young guard seemed to be the only one unable to pick up on the subtle change that occurred around Marcus. He was still more focused on his image rather than what was happening right in front of him.

Unfortunately for him though, Marcus didn't repeat what he said and this only further enraged the petty guard.

Marcus emotions earlier could have been described as nothing more than annoyance previously, and hadn't yet reached the point of anger. He'd been diligent in his training to control his thoughts and emotions and his efforts had born fruit as he maintained an image of calm even as he was insulted and humiliated.

However, the one thing he still had a ways to go on were his feelings regarding his family. He was still a young boy and just like any young boy, he didn't take kindly to insults about his loved ones.

The silence was palpable as the guard awaited a response from Marcus, but once he realized he wasn't going to get one, he rashly decided to attack the omen in front of him for a second time.

The guard chanted another quick incantation, but the only difference was that this time he aimed to do more than just injure Marcus.